LEWISTON — You can ask David Rosquete why he’s so dedicated to running, but you’ll get a few different answers.

In August, the Lewiston police officer will run a marathon in Sydney, Australia. That kind of endeavor may sound daunting to most, but this is a man who has already run marathons in Tokyo, Boston, London, Singapore, Berlin, Chicago and New York City.

What’s one more international marathon to a guy like this?

Rosquete, who will be 43 when he runs in Sydney, made the Abbott World Marathon Majors Hall of Fame by running those six marathons — he did three of them, by the way, in a span of just seven months.

When it was announced in 2024 that the TCS Sydney Marathon would be added to the Abbott World Marathon Majors — a list of events where runners across age groups can compete to earn points and gain international ranking — Rosquete knew he could not leave that box unchecked.

“When it happened, I thought, well I’ve got to go chase my seventh star now,” Rosquete says, referring to the stars earned by completing one of the Abbott major marathons.

On Aug. 30, Rosquete will attempt to run all 26.2 miles of the biggest marathon course on the continent of Australasia. He’s already in training for it — all while serving as a beat cop on the Lewiston police force and doing his duties for the U.S. Navy.

Why, you’ve got to wonder, does a man pushing middle age set such a rugged schedule for himself?

There’s his kids, for one thing. They are 9 and 6 years old, and he wants them to be the best version of themselves they can possibly be.

“For me, as a father, it’s kind of cool for my kids to look and see a 42-year-old running another marathon and pushing himself to be physically active and to be a positive influence in that way,” Rosquete says. “And they see what I do with the Navy and with the police department and I hope that they can emulate that as they grow up.”

And there are other kids — kids all over the world that Rosquete may never even get the chance to meet.

As he runs, Rosquete is working hard to raise funds for the group Get Kids Going!, a national charity that gives disabled youngsters a chance to get involved in athletics.

Rosquete is hoping to raise $2,500 and he has a particular zeal about the marathon because of that cause. All kids, Rosquete believes, should have the chance to improve their lives through competition and vigorous physical activity.

Then there’s Rosquete’s twin brother Dan, who will also be running in Sydney come August.

All their lives, Rosquete says, he and his brother have competed with one another in a way that makes each of them work harder and strive to always get better.

It was Dan who started running marathons when their father, Hector, a prominent orthopedic surgeon, died of cancer in 2014.

“Dan started running when our father passed away,” Rosquete says, “as kind of a way to stay connected with him.”

Dan didn’t just run, he ran big, starting with the Boston Marathon before moving on to the New York Marathon to earn Abbott World Marathon Majors stars.

At the time, David Rosquete was just a spectator.

“I went down to cheer him on,” he says. “I’d never been to a marathon before and I thought it was just incredibly awesome. It kind of put in my head that someday, I’ve got to do this.”

But it was his twin who really lit a fire under Rosquete.

After running the New York Marathon in 2017, Dan took his brother aside.

“He said, ‘next year is your year. You’re running the Boston Marathon,'” Rosquete recalls. “I kind of laughed it off at the time. I thought it was funny.”

He dismissed the idea in the moment, maybe, but suddenly Rosquete found himself running harder and more frequently when he trained at the police station in Lewiston or at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

Rosquete was training for something big, even if he didn’t fully realize it at the time.

In 2018, he went all in. He ran marathons in Chicago, New York and Boston, all in seven months, to earn three quick stars. Then it was off to Tokyo, London and Berlin to complete the Abbott Majors at a time before Sydney was pulled into the mix.

His peers on the Lewiston police squad have taken notice.

“We are very proud of Dave,” says Chief Carly Conley. “He has traveled the world competing in marathons, representing not only Maine and the United States, but also the law enforcement community.

“Officer wellness is extremely important to us,” she said, “and we are pleased to see the dedication he has put into what has become a true passion.”

Rosquete is in training again, preparing not only for another long run, but for a full day of air travel, a different time zone, an unfamiliar culture and whatever culinary changes he needs to get used to.

It’s a piece of cake, really, for a man with so many miles of running already behind him. And as he prepares to take on the grueling challenges of the Sydney course, he’s pushed on by thoughts of his children as well as the less-advantaged children of the world who might benefit from his efforts.

He is motivated as well by thoughts of his brother, his father and, of course, of the joy of running itself.

“Running long distance, to me, has allowed me to become both mentally resilient and physically strong,” Rosquete says, “It’s where discipline meets endurance and the mind learns it can go farther than the body thinks, while also showing my children that if they put their minds to it, anything is possible.”